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May 26, 2009

Some book learning

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Last updated: Sunday May 24, 2009, 10:50 AM
NorthJersey.com

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES began life in this country as auxiliaries to public schools and as outgrowths of social libraries. This was the 1800s. Free access to books was seen as integral to a good public education, and democratically minded townspeople of different states thought not all libraries should require a fee to belong.

The result is that public libraries have become a powerful and important part of American society. New Jersey alone has 245 municipal and joint libraries. The United States has more than 9,000. They serve as meeting places, hangouts, book clubs, literacy training sites, free Internet cafes and job centers. All in addition to their role as community providers of reading material.

Property taxes fund libraries. And, as institutions devoted solely to helping the reading and Web-using public, they should be paid for by the people.

Last year the Legislature passed a law allowing municipal library boards to funnel some of their excess funds to municipalities. As Staff Writers Merry Firschein and Denisa Superville wrote on Saturday, the money can be used to reduce property taxes — as in Mahwah — or pay municipal employees — as in Clifton.

"Any time a particular entity in town that gets money from taxpayers finds a way to return the money to taxpayers they should do that," Mahwah Mayor Richard Martel told The Record.

We would argue that libraries do return the money to taxpayers in so many ways, if not directly in cash, and that taking money away from them should be done only when absolutely necessary. As Patricia Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association, points out, public libraries have to keep pace with computer technology, as well as pay for necessities like new carpeting and portable furniture to accommodate the evolving and increased use of the buildings. These are costly expenses, and are paid for by reserves.

Fortunately the law has checks built in, including a funding formula and a requirement that the state librarian approve the fund transfer. This should prevent library coffers from being routinely raided, which is of course an understandable temptation when towns are struggling to stay afloat.

But just as towns are struggling, so are the residents. And they are turning to libraries. Circulation is up, computer use has skyrocketed, and hours are being extended. Librarians have been trained how to fill out unemployment forms, Tumulty said, because so many people who lost their jobs were asking for help.

In a way, libraries are a refuge from the bruising fracas that is daily life. They are retreats with resources that enable patrons to gird themselves with knowledge and then head back out into the fray.

It is with dismay that we learned about a bill introduced in both the Assembly and state Senate to cut municipal funding for libraries from one-third to one-sixth of a mil of assessed property value. One third of a mil is 33.3 cents of every $1,000 of assessed value.

Tumulty says the bill would be "absolutely devastating" if it becomes law.

What can be cut from a library? Not much. Books, computers, hours or staff.

A writer in the 1800s called free public libraries "the people’s colleges." To halve their funding is to take away education from the people.

Posted by tumulty at May 26, 2009 5:42 PM

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